Greece's European Championships Record
Greece are the reigning European Champions having beaten Portugal 1-0 in the Final in Portugal 4 years ago. Greece do not have a very vast history in the competition. In the Euro 2008, they'll be competing for only the third time in the competition, Greece's first appearance in the competition was in 1980, but in that event, they failed to win a single match.
Their first win in the European Championships was in their first match of Euro 2004, a 2-1 win over Portugal in the group stage. In the other group stage matches, Greece earned an unlikely draw against Spain and lost against Russia, this was though enough for the Greeks to progress. This was already unexpected out of the Greek squad that were given excessively high odds at the beginning of the competition. In the quarterfinals, Greece continued to impress by beating former champions France. Their success did not stop here. They were drawn against the Czech Republic, the only unbeaten team left in the competition, who had managed an astonishing 4 straight wins before losing on a late silver goal to Greece. To the delight of the Greek fans that had spent so much to travel to Portugal, Greece were in the final to meet the Portuguese squad for the second time in the competition. As if this was not already a great success for the Greeks, they went on to score a goal through Charisteas, and hold onto their lead to become the Champions of Europe.
This win soared Greece up in the FIFA rankings, and in February 2008, they stand in 10th place. Greece owe their success partly to their current manager, the German Otto Rehhagel. He always motivated the squad to cause the upsets in the matches they have won against the big teams. Greece will be determined to hold onto their status of champions in this year's European Championship. They were drawn in Group D alongside Sweden, Spain and Russia, quite a coincidence that two of the three teams were in the same group as Greece in Euro 2004.
